Once Upon a Fairytail
by MistressThornedRose
Summary: Just your average mixed up fairy tale! NaLu eventually :)
1. Prologue

Once upon a Fairytail

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Just your average mixed up fairy tale.

I do not (however much I'd like to) own Fairytail or any of its characters.

Please be nice…I've never written a fanfic before so I'm kind of nervous…boy I hope people like it…actually…even If they don't like it I'd be happy if someone _reads _it . ;P

A/N – _when written in italics it's a flashback_

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Prologue

Once upon a time, far far away in the magical kingdom of Magnolia, there lived the beautiful princess Lucy with her mother and father. Her mother, Queen Layla Heartfilia, was a kind queen and her beauty surpassed all in the land. The king, Lucy's father Jude Heartfilia, was a bit rough around the edges but with a heart of gold, ruled his kingdom fairly and was loved by all his subjects. The young princess had all the friends she could ever want. She would go out to play with the children in the town below the castle and she would spend hours playing and when she would arrive home at the end of each day, tired from hours of battling the dragons and saving the princess, she would be carried off to bed by her father telling him and her mother of the adventures she and her friends had that day.

"_Papa..." Lucy mumbled as her father carried her off to bed. "We played princess today… *Yawn* … Gray was the prince and he had to save me…from the…dragon…Jellal…" She trailed off as her mouth opened to let out another yawn. The king smiled and kissed his precious daughter on the tip of her nose. "I wanted to play the dragon…but…Erza didn't let me…she just wanted to beat Jellal…Maybe next time…I'll be the dragon?" She closed her eyes and dreamt of beautiful princesses, brave knights and ferocious dragons…_

Growing up, the princess was fascinated by the fairy tales that her mother and father would read to her. She never tired of the stories and was always brimming with questions about the characters and places in them. Lucy especially loved the princesses in her books; they were all beautiful and caring. They had lots of friends, and some could even talk to the animals. The one problem with the princesses, that she could see, was that they were always letting themselves be tricked or kidnapped. Why didn't the princesses do anything to stop the witch? Or the evil queen? Or the dragon? She was a princess too, but there was no way she'd ever let a dragon kidnap her! Maybe she should ask Erza to teach her how to fight like she could next time they played together, then no dragon would dare try to take her away for a snack.

Her mother always told her that it was important to do what her heart told her to do. Her heart told her not to get kidnapped by a dragon.

"_Mama! I want to be a princess like the one in these stories" The young princess, around seven years old, ran toward her mother. _

_Her mother smiled and laughed, holding out her arms to her daughter who snuggled into her warm hug._

"_You are a princess sweetie! My princess! And any prince would be lucky to have to save you." She hugged her daughter tightly and ruffled her pretty blonde hair._

_Lucy pulled away from her mother to look her in the eye not happy with the answer, _

"_I don't want to be a weak princess though…" she mused, her little pink lips forming a small pout. "I want to save myself from the dragon. I don't want to be stuck with a mean old dragon until the prince saves me…Mama? What should I do? I want to be the princess but I want to beat the dragon too…" Her brown eyes boring into her mothers. Layla simply smiled._

"_What do you think you should do?"_

The princess with her kind and doting parents was raised to be an equally kind and gentle young woman. Well…that was the plan at least…

However in a land even further away, there lived the mighty dragon Igneel and his son Natsu. Igneel loved his son very much and taught him everything he knew about dragons and the world they lived in. Natsu, however, was not a dragon. He was born very much human but, found abandoned in the woods, he was raised by Igneel who taught him to read and speak. He also taught him a long-lost fire dragon-slayer magic if anything should happen to him. Natsu over the long years grew up to be a hot-headed but also hot-hearted boy with pink…sorry...salmon coloured hair whose favourite pastime was indeed playing with fire.

Natsu liked to hear the stories his foster-father told him about stealing sheep from farmers and burning their livestock, fighting with other dragons in deadly clashes of strength and will power, Natsu loved these as Igneel would show him all the scars from his fights. But the stories that he liked best were the stories about kidnapping princesses and roasting the princes for a late afternoon snack.

"_Igneel! When I grow up I'm gonna be the best dragon ever!" Natsu yelled throwing his arms wide and flopping on the soft green grass below him. Igneel laughed at his son's enthusiasm as he sat down beside the young human. Natsu looked up at the red dragon and then to the sky._

"_FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!" A column of fire shot into the sky and Natsu looked back at his father grinning proudly as a bird who happened to be flying overhead dropped down at his feet. "I'm gonna catch a princess just like you did Dad! She'll be the most beautiful princess ever and I'll roast anyone who tries to stop me!" He cried out jumping to his feet pumping his fist in the air, still grinning._

_Igneel's laughter shook their valley with a low rumble that sounded like thunder._

"_I'm sure you will son. Just don't let the princess catch you too" _

"_Ha! Like that'll happen! I'm the dragon and she's the princess, the dragon catches the princess, not the other way around. Don't be silly Dad!" Igneel just gave a knowing look and lay down by the young boy._

"_I'm sure you will Natsu. But now is time for sleep." And with that the two dragons curled up and fell asleep under the stars. _

Natsu never did find out what Igneel meant by the princess catching the dragon. On The seventh of July Igneel the great was finally slain in a fight against another dragon.

Natsu couldn't do anything as his father yelled for him to run. All he could do was watch as his father, the strongest dragon ever; finally fall down defeated with the other dragon laughing over his dead body. With tears in his eyes he clutched the scarf that Igneel gave him and ran.

He found a small cave which he crawled into and cried himself to sleep.

The next morning he awoke to find he wasn't alone in the cave. A small blue cat crawled in sometime during the night and fell asleep against the fire dragon's warm, warm body.

_The young boy was now all alone. Igneel was gone. His father was dead and he was alone._

"_I will be the best dragon ever. Just watch me Igneel. I'll make you proud!" Natsu wiped away his tears as he spoke softly into the darkness._

"_Yeah! That's the spirit!" A small voice piped up from beside him. Natsu jumped up, very nearly banging his head on the low rocky roof, and looked around for the voice._

"_Who's there? Where are you? Come out or I'll roast you alive!" He tried to make himself stop shaking from his scare earlier and frighten away whoever was watching him._

"_Down here! Wait I'll come up…" The small voice seemed to be coming from the ground. Natsu looked down and was greeted with the sight of a blue cat with wings flap his way to sit at head height. Natsu's eyes grew large as he took in the sight before him. _

"_Whoa…" he whispered still staring at the cat._

"_The name's Happy! What about you?" _

"_I-I'm Natsu…Natsu Dragneel." He reached out slowly to pet the cat, Happy._

"_Why so sad Natsu?" Happy's cheery voice seemed to calm Natsu's nerves as he stroked the blue fur. Natsu then told Happy everything that had happened._

Natsu and Happy since that day became the best of friends. Together they work toward reaching Natsu's dream of kidnapping the most beautiful princess and becoming the strongest dragon in the world.

Igneel's warning slowly slipped into the back of Natsu's mind.

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Tbc.

So? How'd I do? Was that okay for a first chapter of a fanfic? Well, from the bottom I can only go up! (unless i have a shovel...well grr)


	2. Chapter 2

Once Upon a Fairytail

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Hey! Thank you so much for reading this and to those who reviewed. I'll try to take on any advice thrown my way so I can improve throughout the story.

Also, italics doesn't mean flashback from here on out. Okay? Coolies!

Just a few things I thought I might add in before I start, I have included some of my favourite pairings (or at least I will eventually)… Gale, Jerza, Gruvia, and also I don't own Fairytail, none of the characters. None, nope, nada!

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Chapter 1

"Hey Lucy! Get back up! I'm not done with you yet!" the scarlet headed teen demanded, poking the moaning lump of blonde on the ground. The evil aura from the sword wielding red-head had their friends, and a few others who had come to watch, cowering in fear.

"Okay…Erza, one more…time…" Lucy started to push herself up from the ground.

After a minute she was finally standing up, but leaning on the training sword in her shaking hands, swaying as if she were drunk. Her clothing was covered in dust and her hair was a mess. Her friends looked on in amazement. Here was Lucy, _Princess_ Lucy, up against Erza in a sword fight and not backing down though clearly exhausted and very much defeated.

The girls had been at it all afternoon at Lucy's request. Her dream was to take on a dragon and preferably win. Heck! Even if she lost she wanted to be the princess who died fighting a dragon!

Erza smirked and got into position to start the match again. It lasted only seconds with Lucy easily being beaten by Erza, leaving her back to groaning on the ground. Erza grinned triumphantly as she called for Lucy to get up and go again. The blue-black haired male, having seen enough, walked over to help the princess up on her feet.

"Erza give her a break. You've been going at this for hours." He said while brushing off Lucy's back leaving puffs of dirt floating in the air.

"Yeah…I guess you're right. Nice job Lucy, you're getting better." Erza stuck out her hand for her friend to grab. "Gray, help me carry her" she commanded. They put her friends' arms over their shoulders and helped her towards the old tree stump to catch her breath and nurse her bruises.

The rest of the group determining that all the fighting was done for the day gradually dispersed from their vantage point along the wooden fence. Most spectators making their way home before dark but some stayed and walked towards Lucy and Erza to congratulate on a good show. In the lead was a small bluenette girl with bright eyes bounding towards her friends at the stump dragging along a tall and scary looking male by the hand. He had long black hair and lots of metal piercings and it was a very amusing sight watching the male being pulled around by the smaller female, Levy.

"Hey shrimp, slow down!" The scary guy said to Levy as she pulled him making him stumble slightly. Not much but still enough to get a laugh from the energetic girl who turned while running to grin at him. He looked away quickly to hide a blush.

"Gajeel it's not my fault you're slow" she said laughing again as she noticed his blush.

"Ha! Me? Slow?" He grabbed the girl who shrieked as she found herself being tucked carefully under his arm. The girl laughed and started yelling as he sprinted towards their friends who had by this stage made it to the stump and were inspecting the fresh batch of bruises that Lucy had collected that day. He chuckled and started running even faster which made Levy smile even wider.

By the stump Lucy gingerly poked the bruises on her left arm. They had become large and an ugly shade of black-purple sometime during her thrashing. She secretly thought that Erza actually enjoyed inflicting pain on her, not that she would ever say so out loud, Erza was terrifying when she was upset.

"Gray-sama!" A second bluenette screeched as she came running across the clearing overtaking Gajeel leaving him and Levy with a shocked expression as they watched the girl practically flying towards Gray whipping up a tornado of dust in her wake. Just as she neared them she just _happened_ to trip and graze her knees.

"Gray-sama! Juvia's hurt too! Help Juvia not Lucy!" Juvia whined to Gray, crocodile tears flowing, and sent a glare in the direction of her so-called 'love rival' Lucy. Gray sighed and stepped away from Lucy where he was tending some of her cuts and bruises on her right leg. Juvia smiled smugly as Gray began to wipe the blood that was starting to trickle down from the graze. "Oh Gray-sama, you're so nice to Juvia! Lucy does not deserve you Gray-sama!" Lucy just rolled her eyes because she had told Juvia on many occasions that she was not at all interested in her beloved 'Gray-sama'.

They sat and talked until the sun began to drift below the horizon painting the sky with a pink glow the colour of fairy floss. And when the first stars appeared in the clear evening sky, the group gradually fell away as they headed for home. First Levy accompanied by Gajeel who insisted that he had homework to do (it was a Saturday and since when does Gajeel do homework?) and it was totally _not_ him wanting to walk Levy home, pfft 'cos that'd be _ridiculous. _

The next to go was Erza. She had to get home so she had time to clean all of her armour collection before dinner and she had a lot to get through. She waved as she disappeared off into the distance.

Then went Juvia to Gray's relief because she had been plastered up against him for the last few hours and his arm had started to go to sleep. She ran off saying something about she remembering that she left her Gray-shaped cake on the window and had to get home before someone stole it, crying that she wouldn't let _anyone_ eat up _her _Gray-sama. With that said, she was surrounded by a thick, black, evil aura (Gray paled at the thought and Lucy shuddered also).

All too soon it was only Lucy and Gray left.

"Need a hand back to the castle?" Gray held his hand out to the battered blonde who grabbed it to pull herself up.

"Just to the outside gate is fine. Thank you Gray." And with that said, they picked up and headed off towards Heartfilia Castle.

Slowly but surely the pair made their way back to Lucy's home, a tall stone castle surrounded by hundreds of tall green trees and little lily ponds.

The castle was humongous and easily had over one hundred rooms. Lucy knew every inch of her castle. All of the secret tunnels and passageways were discovered and thoroughly explored by the inquisitive girl when she was young. She'd spent many a day learning the twists and turns of the corridors, walking around on the old stone floors, committing them firmly into her memory.

The gardens were her absolute favourite place though, with many winding paths that you'd expect to find little fairies playing around every corner or an old and wise rabbit reading his paper while drinking his tea. Here she would play all day long often with her friends creating magical adventures and, of course, fighting dragons.

In the light of the setting sun the castle gave off a beautiful golden glow, lighting up the garden. As they walked they failed to notice a pair of onyx-coloured eyes following their every move, or more accurately, _Lucy's _every move.

Gray and Lucy came to a stop when they reached the tall wrought iron gate that marked the start of the castle gardens.

"Are you sure you're okay to get inside?" Gray turned to face Lucy who looked back at him and smiled a smile that would make even the sun jealous.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you Gray." She walked herself to the gate and slipped through before closing them behind her. Gray nodded and, after bidding her a good night, headed back towards the town where he lived. "Good night, make sure you get home safely!" Lucy called out to him as he made his way home. He turned and waved before continuing on his way.

Lucy sighed. In all honesty she felt awful. Her limbs were battered, bruised and she felt like she could fall to the ground like jelly at any moment. "The joys of being a princess…" she muttered to herself, still not noticing the eyes gleaming in the bushes behind her.

"A princess huh?" A voice called, echoing around in between the trees, Lucy whipped her head around at the sound.

"Whose there?" She called out, turning in circles, searching in vain for the voice she had heard. Finding no one she turned towards the path leading to the castle when suddenly a wave of pain blossomed at the bottom of her skull. She cried out before falling to the ground, leaving a grinning salmon-haired dragon staring triumphantly over the body of the unconscious princess.

"We did it Happy!" Natsu cried quietly so they didn't arouse suspicion and threw the rock he used back into the bushes. "Now let's get her and go before she wakes up!"

"Aye sir!"

And with that, the mighty dragon (plus cat) kidnapped the princess.

Someone won't be too happy when she wakes up…

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So? How was that? School's back and they're ruthless! How much homework do they think I need?! Well...anyway...please do review and give me tips so I can learn from my mistakes. Thanks


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